1. Field of the Invention
In the industrial manufacture of sweets, continuously operating plants are well known. These plants generally include a cooker, in which confections (for example candy) are produced by mixing according to predetermined recipes, and a subsequent processing line in which the material, in certain cases mixed with additional ingredients, is cooled and then subsequently shaped into individual candies.
2. Description of the Related Art
The continuous conveyance of the material, in particular from the cooker or, as the case may be, an evaporation room downstream of the cooker, to a cooling line usually occurs by means of a discharge screw conveyor which has the form of a helical rotor rotating within a static housing. The rotor has until now been mounted on both ends of the static housing, and includes a discharge column extending out approximately perpendicular to the rotor axes. The stator housing at the same time is provided with supply columns, through which the possible ingredients such as coloring agents, aromas or medicinally active agents, which could be gaseous, liquid, pasty, granular or in powder form, can be continuously added or dosed.
It has been found, in the plants operating today, that the required consistency of treatment of the material cannot always be guaranteed. This has now been found to be a consequence of the fact that different portions of the material can have different dwell times, particularly at the end of the screw rotor, and the material in each case experiences a sharp detour during discharge, whereby temperature and viscosity differences in the material or other disadvantages result, for example an undesired recrystallization could occur in the material.